Based on the other lackluster stuff, they’ll probably just put up an ugly brown fence around each generator
Project 2022: Pantheon
- Thread starter Shane
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Pessimism? I just see logical conclusions drawn from observable evidence.
Logical conclusions are one thing, but the obsessive, negative tone of the last few pages is excessive. Do we all want more theming and plants - yes - but all those things should simply be recognized here as compliments to the $20+ million dollar, world class, Intamin launch rollercoaster.....It’s like playing on your BF’s amazing gaming computer and then complaining to them that they have a second rate mousepad.
We know it’s dumb, but for 89.99 compared to 49.99 or less for KD HP or SFA, you can get more rides with the same level of crappy theming, so BGW sets itself up as a special themed placed and has set itself up in a way to excuse the price, so when they do a KD/SFA/HP level of theming it is below them.
I’ll tell you what we get. We get to know what’s going on with Pantheon.
On top of that, KD is upping their game in the theming / presentation department.
KD just demolished the best theming they will ever have.
What pessimism?
What obsessive, negative tone?
Like, I'm happy to have a conversation about your perceptions, but you two are gonna have to cite some examples so we can discuss them.
That's you're opinion. Coincidentally, that is also the philosophy of an amusement park.
You can't expect there not to be a lot of disappointment from theme park fans every time our once world class theme park builds a major attraction without a story, without any concern for thematic integration, without any sense of placemaking, without a single care about immersion, etc.
You don't need to care. A huge fraction of the larger park enthusiast community are coaster enthusiasts—they go to parks to ride amazing new thrill rides. I love coasters, but my first love is immersive, themed entertainment. EPCOT, my favorite park in the world, has never even had a coaster. My favorite park after my San Francisco trip was Gilroy Gardens despite it just having a couple family coasters. Theme park fans do, objectively, have a value system different than that of coaster enthusiasts—and that is a good thing. We all share this fandom with water park fans, Foodies, Haunters, theater nerds, etc.
Diversity of ideas is a good thing. My "theme park fan" value system and your "coaster enthusiast" hierarchy of needs are both equally valid—they're just different. You won't see me criticize you for loving Pantheon solely because of the ride hardware. I think the inverse should be true as well though.
To be fair, there's an argument to be made that a poorly balanced thing actually, in practice, highlights that thing's negatives more dramatically. Like, to use your example, if someone spends a shit ton of money on a great computer and then has a shitty mousepad, I'd question the investment strategy associated with that computer. Like, maybe that person shoulda bought a slightly less amazing set of fans and, instead, invested a little in a not-awful mousepad.
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The "theming" is highly suspect in comparison to (most?) other rides there from what I remember/can tell, but since I'm more of an amusement park fan and prefer a great ride to queue theming I'll only look at in passing, I not only don't mind, but I'm glad they decided to primarily invest in the ride itself. If they'd made the theming better, but the ride worse, that wouldn't have been a good trade-of from my perspective. Pantheon makes me want to make the trip even more. That plus the fact that they finally put in a wooden coaster several years back. That's actually probably the main reason I hadn't been in years and years. For others for whom theming is more important, I can appreciate the disappointment. To me just nice landscaping is enough and I think they are doing that? I'm not entirely sure, though. Seems like putting in a ride like Pantheon will get an additional crowd (amusement park fans) to come to BGW who might otherwise go to another park with bigger and better rides, and wouldn't really stop theme park fans from coming because there are rides with good theming there.
Of course then there is this issue of how the park is being run now, which is a huge turnoff. Hopefully they can get their act together by the time Pantheon opens.
Of course then there is this issue of how the park is being run now, which is a huge turnoff. Hopefully they can get their act together by the time Pantheon opens.
I don't think spending more on theming would have had to necessitate making the coaster worse. Going back to the original investment strategy here, there was a lot of money set aside for a La Cucina renovation as part of Pantheon's debut. I'm of the opinion that renovating La Cucina for, what, the third time now, is akin to lighting money on fire. I think that budget would have been much better spent on Pantheon's station, plaza, etc.
That said, La Cucina's renovation budget seems like it dried up sometime during COVID, so...
That said, La Cucina's renovation budget seems like it dried up sometime during COVID, so...
Comes in and within 8 posts is already calling out members and using the word "fuck" in posts. Yes... I think you will fit in just fine here.
No one has found any permits or inspections request if they are just rethemeing the restaurant and doing a new menu they might be able to do it without permits but I am not sure how well doing it on the cheap will work.
Over the past few years I feel BGW has been increasingly substituting their biggest long-term competitive edge (superior production value, of which ride theming is a part) for the short-term hype of new, more generic attractions. What I believe always set BGW apart from similar sized “amusement” parks was their ability to keep their production value well above what is expected from a regional park, and it’s served them well by attracting people from all over the country despite the fact that many of them have a Six Flags or similar park in their backyard. Clearly if those guests traveling from afar were only interested in generic rides in a fairly generic environment, they wouldn’t make the longer trip all the way to BGW. There’s a long-term psychological investment that takes place in guests as a result of the park’s superior production value (hell, isn’t that one reason we’re all here?), and if the park continues to take a position of pushing short-term hype over long-term psychological investment, it will lose its most attractive characteristic (especially for its many out of town guests) that keeps people coming back more often than they perhaps otherwise would if you factor in the geographically closer competition. Why should I drive 5+ hours for just another generic park when I have Carowinds in my backyard? The reason I make the trip is the production value, and the psychological investment I’ve built over the years having grown up going to BGW. BGW’s business model may cost more than the models adopted by similarly sized parks and may not provide the higher immediate returns realized by skimping on theming, but this model is precisely what has given BGW its long term pipeline of psychogically invested guests who continue to return year after year.
Maybe one of the reasons everyone is currently concerned about the lack of theming of Pantheon is because the decline in production value seems to be becoming a larger trend (not only in rides, but in events and various aspects of the park in general) - a quality erosion that we’ve been seeing slowly occuring for a while now. None of us want to see BGW turn into just another amusement park and lose the the value that has set it apart for so long and that will keep it competitive in the long term.
Pantheon’s issues are a current symptom of a larger problem that none of us psychologically invested folks want to see continue.
Maybe one of the reasons everyone is currently concerned about the lack of theming of Pantheon is because the decline in production value seems to be becoming a larger trend (not only in rides, but in events and various aspects of the park in general) - a quality erosion that we’ve been seeing slowly occuring for a while now. None of us want to see BGW turn into just another amusement park and lose the the value that has set it apart for so long and that will keep it competitive in the long term.
Pantheon’s issues are a current symptom of a larger problem that none of us psychologically invested folks want to see continue.
I agree that it would be great to have a highly themed station for any attraction at BGW, but then again, none of the rides in that section of the park has much theming to start with.
Apollos Chariot's theming comes down to 3 posters on the maintenance building, a soundtrack on the lift hill that barely ever plays and some fabric strips hanging from the ceiling of a station that is otherwise very similar to Pantheons station.
Or am I missing something there?
Apollos Chariot's theming comes down to 3 posters on the maintenance building, a soundtrack on the lift hill that barely ever plays and some fabric strips hanging from the ceiling of a station that is otherwise very similar to Pantheons station.
Or am I missing something there?
My only other guess for the fence is a extended queue for Pantheon. I will have to look here in a bit to see if anything has been added behind the fence.
Seas has the numbers from every addition, and even Busch's most successful installation for attendance was griffon, while Darkastle clearly didnt do a whole lot in the long run. It's one thing to cherish the wild investments of the past but theres no reason to assume that that was or is the sensible thing for this business to do. BGW is the way it is because of Busch Parks not demanding a profit from it, which was a miraculous situation for the park but it is long gone. Busch cannot rely on destination travelers sitting in eastern Virginia beyond the modest amount of people interested in colonial history. In America theme parks need to be in major tourism hubs to justify the large expenditures.
Kings dominion, aside from decades of management blunders, is squarely within the mid Atlantic economic model for parks, like SFA or carowinds or the PA parks, and it was probably inevitable for bgw to tend towards that model.
At the park, it seems to me that guests respond to finnegans and the like very positively. Minimally themed thrill rides are plenty appealing to guests.
Kings dominion, aside from decades of management blunders, is squarely within the mid Atlantic economic model for parks, like SFA or carowinds or the PA parks, and it was probably inevitable for bgw to tend towards that model.
At the park, it seems to me that guests respond to finnegans and the like very positively. Minimally themed thrill rides are plenty appealing to guests.
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